Group Seeks Ex-Sri Lankan President’s Arrest in Singapore

Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa presents his national statement as a part of the World Leaders' Summit at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, Britain, on Nov. 1, 2021. Andy Buchanan/Pool via Reuters

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka—A rights group gathering evidence on Sri Lanka’s alleged rights abuses said it filed a criminal complaint with Singapore’s Attorney General, seeking to arrest an ex-Sri Lankan president for his role in what they say are alleged war crimes during the island nation’s civil war that ended more than a decade ago.

Lawyers from the International Truth and Justice Project—an organization administered by a South Africa-based nonprofit foundation—filed the complaint, requesting the immediate arrest of ex-Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa for his role as the secretary of defense during Sri Lanka’s civil war, which ended in 2009, the group said in a release on Sunday.